Posts Tagged ‘internet promotions’

Most artist/consultants are used to the old school method of promoting/distributing records. There is a new age out there and we must understand it. I found this interesting article over at New Music Strageties and will be referencing them quite a bit.

FIRST OFF F*CK ALL THE UNITED STATES RADIO STATIONS INCLUDING ALL USA SATELLITE RADIO STATION THAT DON”T PLAY REAL HIP HOP AND GANSTA RAP. *** G****Z GOT SO MANY GANSTA RAP SONGS FOR THE STREETS IT AN”T EVEN FUNNY.. I WANT TO SAY WHAT UP TO ALL MY REAL DJ”S IN LONDON THAT ARE NOT SCARED TO SPEND A NIGGAS RECORD, ALL MY REAL DJ’s OVERSEAs THAT KNOW REAL RAP MUSIC. AND ALL MY REAL DJ’S IN THE STATES THAT DON”T GET RECOGNIZE LIKE THEY SHOULD…. LIKE THE PUPPET DJ’s DO…. listen to this record **** in the **** real gansta shit i did not even get this shit mastered yet, i won’t be suprise i hear a known FAKE RAPPER BITING OFF *** G****Z lyrics or WORDS LIKE I HAVE IN THE past

Artists, please do not tell me that you are serious. These are actually emails that I receive from artists that claim to have business about themselves. I’m sorry, but I can not do business with someone who approach people in this matter. With the internet age, there is easier access to those you may want to get your music to. However, you must realize that ANYONE may be on your email list. Is this how you would approach Diddy? Russell Simmons? Lyor Cohen? Clive Davis? OH WAIT. I’m sorry, you’re a real G. That’s how you would approach them regardless. Then you want to complain why you don’t have a record deal or why no one respects your hustle. Maybe it’s just me, but I can not do business with anyone that I can’t put on TV right at that moment. And no, I do not mean Rap City. I mean commercials, corporate billboards, etc. Let’s think bigger than this. This is a business right? Are you about your business?

As always, I am available to help you with your project. Any questions, feel free to email me at starlitpr@gmail.com. Feel free to leave comments below.

Yesterday I posted a blog about everyone going at in the music industry. Today, StarLIT PR gets her first frenemy in the industry. As a relatively new, but well connected promoter in the industry, I reached out to another promoter for help on an event. Between phone calls and emails, I had not heard a response. That is until today. It was foul mouthed and to me, rather funny. So, I decided to respond:

Maybe I’m mistaken, but I definitely have emails to YOU that date back as far as January in regards to this event. I’ve written almost every month without a response from you or anyone from (your company*). In March, I even offered to barter services but once again there was no reply. Yes, at the end of May, your assistant did reach out to me. I felt that since, we have promoted previous events without you asking and even took the (company*) flyers for THIS event to Columbia, SC, that maybe something could be worked out to benefit both sides. I also felt that since Dj Judge Mental has supported and spread knowledge at your events for quite some time now, that you would be willing to show love to those who were there for you early on. Between the emails and phone calls that I made (your phone would go straight to voicemail and the mailbox was full), I still had NO REPLY from you. If there was an issue, I was always willing to work it out. My clients were willing to pay for sponsorships, all you had to do was ask. But no, YOU waited until 3 weeks before the event to get fed up with “my approach” and finally respond by not helping either side. You have a very bad business about yourself and because of that, everyone will continue not helping your cause. Thank you for the promo that you have done and I wish you luck in your future events.

I tried being civil and end it there. No? It couldn’t end there. So here is the reply, as expected. Angry and full of spelling errors as usual:

My mailbox is never full, I keep my phone close at all times, and rarely miss any calls. Rarely. I have never gotten any correspondence from you concerning my events. Not once. The only time you have ever reached out to me was when i spelled judgemental’s name wrong on Sylvia’s flyers and i responded promptly because that was an email i actually received from you. Bad business??? Do you understand the meaning of the word business?? There is absolutely no one that can say that i owe them any money, or that they have not received fair or above fair treatment for anything they have paid or hired me to do. Now if having bad business about myself means I wont allow people in the industry to use me for what ever they can take for free, and then turn around and secretly wish that my endeavors fail, or to basically work my ass off and then give it away to my counterparts because this means we are “networking” or “grinding” together than fine, label me that, but that is not the meaning of the word “business”. I think the problem is that i have to much business about myself, and will not kiss ass or stay still just to make other people happy. Odviously I have no problem showing love to anyone, i have put judge on 3 of my last set of flyers, in my radio commercials, in my paper, hell i have done more pr work for him than you, so showing love has never been a problem for me. Of course you don’t see any of this . This was all before she reached out to you for a email blast, which was her own doing not mine …. she was not asking your to do a full blown campaign for my event, she was asking you for a simple email blast, like i do for tj chapman, like he does for me, like i do for ozone, like they do for me, greenhitz, musicpowers, etc. As for your clients paying for sponsorships, what would i ask you for that for?? They are your clients, if they were interested in my events its your job to approach me for info on sponsorships, why do i need to write or call up personally and ask??? Keep your luck wish, i have a feeling its not the “good” kind, and tell the “everyone” you mentioned in your second to last statement they can kiss my ass.

This is not the first time I had to cut ties with anyone. And yes, my wish for good luck always comes from the heart. I truly apologize to everyone who has ties to both ends of this situation. I continue to stick to my position and it’s unfortunate that there couldn’t be unity amongst us promoters. I will see those friends/professionals at other events and continue to have the utmost respect for them.

* – this is me being nice and not mentioning the company’s name.

Update as of 6/12 – a public apology was attempted although not accepted by this promoter. She claims it was not an apology although it contained the words “I apologize”. I realized that not only does this woman want to have the last word, but it’s not worth my breath.

As a person that does media promotions and internet marketing, I run into many artists that use MySpace. MySpace was great when not many people knew about it, but now is becoming a black hole and people are getting sucked in and not handling their business. Currently, I run about 8 different pages on MySpace…do you think I have time to sit on there and chat with people and add friends all day? (maybe at times for my artists that I handle) If you are a serious businessperson, use MySpace as the tool it is. It is not your business office, your official website, or the ultimate end-all of internet promotions. Which leads me into the mistakes that artist are making with MySpace.

Having MySpace as your only point of contact on your business cards/flyer/cd inserts! – yes, I put an exclamation point on here because this irks me and the DJs I represent. You had to have an email address to GET a MySpace page, use that. If it is not representative of your music, get a new one! Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail and a list of others have them for FREE (you should know this by now)! I personally like Gmail because you can preview mp3s before downloading them. Also, get a stable contact number. No one cares about your baby mama drama (or whatever reason why you had to change your number). Since I live in the metro Atlanta area, many people use MetroPCS (it’s cheap and can be effective). Have an audible, articulate message left on the machine(promote your MySpace and website there)!

MySpace is not Your Space – I borrowed this phrase from my friend and mentor Jawar. Artists, please stop using MySpace as your website. Do you not notice with the traffic you receive and the number of friends, Tom (or whoever runs it now) is putting limits on things?!?!? Get your own domain and hosting (I recommend Judge Media). There you can control your design and content! Wow, what a concept! MySpace is for social networking, NOT business. Direct your MySpace traffic to your website. You have so much content, you should be able to understand HTML a little bit. No? Contact Judge Media and they’ll quote you a price for design (starting at $500). Which leads me into my next point…

Stop embedding every MySpace or YouTube video you have. – Come on now. This is pretty self explanatory. There is a reason for blogs, MySpace TV, and YouTube pages. If the video is engaging enough, you will go to that page and watch all the videos posted. Trust me, MySpace has sucked me in once or twice (ok, many times)! And whatever video(s) you do have, do not have it on autoplay unless you like hearing your music and the video(s) go at the same time.

Your Background Image is distracting. – I’m not gonna sit at the computer highlighting your text trying to read over your background image. Easily put, you have a picture with a black shirt on…why would you have black text over that black shirt?!?!? Contact me for MySpace design at StarLITpr@gmail.com.

Learn English!! – I don’t want to see misspelled words and run-on sentences. If you want your bio up there – get a bio writer. Try to be short and engaging. If you want to talk long, get a blog or write a book. I thought you were trying to sell music though.

This is just to tell you that MySpace is not all there is to Internet Promotion. Someone compared it to street postering. Is it effective? Probably. Is it the only thing you will do to get your music promoted? No. Ok then. I hope you enjoy this post. For more about me, please visit www.StarLITprOnline.com.